Note: This is where the alternate version really begins.

Chapter 4
by Punk

(Chris's POV)

"Jacey, you've been walking around this store and in and out of the dressing room 50 times. Plus you've been around the entire mall twice." I looked up from my Kerreng magazine and smirked at my little sister. There was already a pile of clothes on the counter and 4 more bags behind it, and she wasn't even done yet. Jacey's face turned red as she added a black mini skirt and a red and black t-shirt to the pile. I smirked again. "I'm kidding." I'd rather see her in shopaholic mode then breaking down. Right now we were the only ones in the store.

Kinda odd, because you'd think with me, Chris Novak, son of Branden and Jade Novak and nephew of Bam Margera and Jimmy Pop, behind the counter people would be lining up just to see me. Heh, well okay, I sound pretty conceited. But hey, I wouldn't mind if a bunch of rocker chicks in short skirts and fishnets came in and leaned against the counter or just happened to bend over in front of me pretending to look at stuff on bottom shelves. I'm a 16 year old guy for crying out loud. Sadly girls seem to line up more for Cole then for me, and he's got a freakin' girlfriend. I guess they think Cole is the type to run around just 'cause his girlfriend lives in Finland. I still don't know what makes him so much more damn attractive. We look exactly the same! Must be the whole skater thing that the girls are attracted to; that and the fact that he tends to wear black eyeliner and nail polish sometimes. Well all three of us have that tendency but not nearly as much as our mom and sister. "Jacey, grab a couple bottles of the black nail polish over there. It's been a while since we had to get some more so I had to dig into mom's bottle the last time I painted my nails."

Jacey smirked and grabbed three bottles. "That's 'cause Cole ran out and kept forgetting to get more. I cleaned my bottle out too." That statement made me laugh. Cole hardly ever goes through a bottle of nail polish by himself, unlike Jacey and mom. "We gotta remember to send Corey some, and eyeliner too." I nodded feeling my eyes start to well at the sound of his name. Cole Corey and I are close. Maybe it's because we're triplets. We can read each others minds, feel what the others are feeling. Me especially, being the middle I'm the most empathic I feel the most. It's no secret we're very much alike physically even now. Like I said the three of us wear black nail polish and eyeliner from time to time, we all dress in dark skater clothes, we all skate of course, Cole's just better, we tend to wear close to the same outfit every day too. Like today, I'm wearing a dark red Element sweatshirt, a pair of black Tripp pants with red stitching, and adios with red laces. Cole had been wearing a blue Element tank top under a black long sleeve button down shirt (with the buttons undone) and black Tripp pants with blue stitching and adios with blue laces this morning. And Corey, he'd come down before I left, he was wearing a long sleeve purple Element t-shirt, adios with purple laces and black Tripp pants with purple stitching. I looked down at my arms briefly, I got bit by something on my wrist and it itched like hell, which usually meant my brothers had some sort of thing on their wrists too. I sighed, I already guessed Corey must be enduring an IV, Cole's latest skating injury was probably what was bothering him.

"Chris, stop spacing out!" I looked up at Jacey. She had just dumped some money in the cash register and was bagging up her stuff. I looked at my watch. "I'm hungry and your shift is over in 10 minutes. It's pizza night, lets go home." I nodded. Luke was just coming in to take over for me anyway. Jacey picked up her bags and I followed her out of the store.

(Jacey's POV)

Chris didn't say much as he drove us home. Not that I really expected him too. I knew the deal with my oldest brothers, I know how bad this is fucking with Chris. He sat there for a minute when we got home. I sighed softly and got out. I started getting my bags and realized how much I had actually bought. I shook my head. I had a real shopping problem. But given what had just happened to us, I'd say I'm allowed to blow 500 dollars and stuff I'll probably only wear once. Oh well, I can give some stuff to Aila and Hanna when we go to Finland next month.

"Jacey."

I got in the door and shrieked. "Josh!" I dropped and my bags and ran to hug my eldest brother. "Josh what are you doing here?" I pulled back and looked at him grinning. He smiled sadly.

"I figured this is where I need to be right now. But, I'm not so sure everyone is gonna happy to see me as you and the guys are." Cole and Jeremey walked in just as the door closed and Chris walked over to hug Josh.

"Dude, what's up?" Chris grinned and then looked at Josh and then over to Cole and Jeremey. They both were looking away. Jeremey was chewing on his lip. Something he did when he was nervous. "What's going on?"

"Amy's here. She's in the living room." Cole told us. My face lit up and I quickly ran into the other room to see Amy. I'm probably the only one who really likes her. "Jacey." Cole Jeremey Josh and Chris were coming after me. I stopped seeing Amy sitting on the couch. She smiled sadly seeing me and got up.

"Hey Jacey. Hey guys." I walked over and hugged her. Pulling back I glanced down at her stomach. She put her hands on her pregnant belly and I turned around. "I think we need to talk before Jade and Novak get back." Jeremey sank down in a chair and Chris and Cole leaned against the wall. Josh put his hand behind his head. I looked at my brothers and sighed softly.

"Dad's gonna freak the fuck out again." Cole groaned. "Josh, I love for coming home, but why couldn't Amy stay in England? I really don't want to hear Mom and Dad fighting tonight." Josh sighed. "I mean, come on this really isn't the best time for them to have to deal with this."

"Deal with what? The fact that they have a grandchild on the way?" I looked at Cole. "Really, I mean I know Dad is against Amy, and I know she isn't exactly a favorite among the rest of the family, but come on. Josh is here. That's all that should matter."

"I'm with her." Chris spoke up. "This thing with Corey has them both fucked up, it has us all fucked up. At least this is something to get their minds off everything." Chris turned to Josh and Ava "Hey do you guys know if it's a boy or a girl?" They shook their heads. I looked at my brothers and my brother's girlfriend. Cole sighed and finally nodded his head. Jeremey slumped down in his chair and sighed.

The thing about Josh's girlfriend, in case you couldn't tell, is everyone in my family besides me can't stand her. For one thing when Josh met her a few years ago in England she was still 15 years old. Now she's not even 18 years old yet and she's pregnant. I have a sneaky suspicion that Josh might not be the father. The fact that Josh and Amy had slept together long before she turned 18 makes my mom and dad not like them being together. But other reasons why my family doesn't like her is because she turned out to be a compulsive liar and she's a bit of a schizophrenic. Not only that, but a lot of people said that she runs around on Josh. Josh refuses to believe that she's ever cheated on him. Also once she found out who Josh was related to she took it upon herself to take advantage of him and the rest of us trying to get money. I guess she decided after a few failed attempts to get money from us that my dad would be the easiest target so she figured out his bank code and stole a large amount of money from his account. Josh said many times that he'd repay Dad even though he believes that it wasn't Amy who took the money. Josh and Dad have always had personal problems between them but when Josh determined that Dad was lying about Amy being the one who took the money, the two of them blew up at each other and things between Josh and Dad haven't been the same since. No one has ever been able to figure out what Josh even saw in her to begin with and we may never know. I don't entirely like all these things about her that are supposedly true but I try to find good things about her to like.

"What about her family?" My question was left unanswered by the sounds of the front door slamming. Mom and Dad were home.